When it comes time to design an interface, there is a serious question to ask—are you a top or a bottom? Me, I'm a bottom. I find buttons much easier to access when they're at the bottom of the screen. Reaching towards the top, to me, is simply awkward.

In the latest version of Outlook, the developers must feel the same. They've taken the quick access buttons that used to reside in the top of the side navigation menu and moved them down below. You will now find shortcuts to your email, calendar, files, and contacts just above the navigation bar.

Old

New

This is a change that hearkens back to Gmail's old design. It also shares similarities with the old-but-now-new way Google+ handles navigation. But no matter how nice bottoms may consider the change, tops are sure to grumble. Either way, if you're running version 2.0.3, this is what you get.

What's New:

We’ve switched things up! You can now easily access your email, files and calendar right from the bottom of your screen.

Comments

All things considered I think this placement makes more sense than keeping those buttons in the drawer, and it isn't like they could reasonably add yet ANOTHER toolbar height at the top to accommodate these.
That said, I'm still not a fan of bottom tab bars/split action bars/whatever. For me personally, reaching to one extreme of the screen is just the same as reaching to the other, and bottom controls put the main content in a sort of uncomfortable box.

In general, not this specific case. If we are talking top vs bottom in general, bottom is one navbar height away from the true canvas bottom, top is a status bar height and likely a toolbar height away from true canvas top.

If your grip isn't weighted toward the bottom of the device how do you reach the most used buttons on android situated on the navbar?

Rosa Tatro

Till I saw the draft that was of 8325 dollars, I accept that my friend’s brother was like really generating cash in his free time with his pc. . His aunt's neighbor has done this for only 8 months and by now repaid the loan on their home and bought a new Car .Why not try this. gbj...

bottom action bars are easier to reach and more confortable for interaction in any conditions, all that is placed in the upper left corner or the top of a handheld's ui is just out of place. yes, I'm talking about burger menus and notif tray.

BKPhil

The burger really should be top right, or better yet, bottom right.

Or better yet, to accommodate our lefty brothers and sisters, every app should offer a four-way option.

Theese days fanboysm is ruling over ui concept, everything that google does is gold, bigger problem, even google does not know what it's doing with the android ui. It's just a bunch of inconsistent and not studied choices.

Matthew Fry

If they just get rid of the stupid focused/other bar (which has caused me to miss emails) they could do it there.

Alkaidia

Just turn it off. Settings > focused inbox. Flip the switch and it's off. They've had that setting since it was introduced, I believe.

Matthew Fry

I know it can be turned off but if they didn't have it in the first place they could put these buttons up there or have tabs.

sugardeath

This also keeps it inline with the UI for Outlook on desktops. Those same buttons are at the bottom of the main Outlook window.

Tony

It's like that on iOS. It is much better.

brkshr

Like Google+ does...

Derek L.

This at least adds a level of consistency across all platforms. The app is designed for Android, but it contains the same exact layout as iOS (for the most part). Likewise, the Windows 10 app is similar, and it also has the same layout.

Microsoft is definitely stepping up their game and designing accordingly. Functionality still needs baked in across all of Outlook, but from what I've seen over the past couple of months, they're getting there. A little too slowly however, but they're getting there.

Christopher

I'm a top, but I prefer my navigation hidden in a drawer. Hahaha

supersanborn

I can go either way on this
:-)

krudl3rx

Ugh. When is Chrome going to get the new tab button moved from top left to bottom right?!?!??!?!?!?!?!

Felipe Ventura

You mean on tablets, with a (+) button on the bottom right corner just like on Google+? That would be a nice addition.

Chris Brown

YES, YES, YES! I noticed this change this morning when checking Outlook. This is SO MUCH more usable for professionals that have a lot of email and calendar events. Love it.

Until they stop doing cloud credential storage, they can jam their app.

philosopher_Mk

When you have tabs in tab bottom tabs make more sense than putting everything on top.

Nexus Venturi

I've been wondering when ui designers would finally realise we all have a phablet now and top placement is inconvenient. I have gesture shortcuts so I don't have to stretch thumb up to top of screen.

BKPhil

Recently and reluctantly made the move from a nice handy N5 to a big hulking (in the current market, mid-sized) LG G4.

Reaching anything on north, north-west end of the screen is a real pain in the neck.

The doctor is in

Hmm. Any pain you're experiencing from such an action should really be limited to your device-holding hand. I'd suggest you come in for a quick check-up.

P.S. I'm a top.

Kyle Thompson

why is it so hard to just simply have an option in settings to put it on top or bottom? like most things it's Google's way or the highway (the non-existent Restart on any vanilla android OS for example). boggles my mind why we can't just have a setting for things like that to move or turn on at user's content without having to resort to root/etc to do it.

DuckingGold

It's not Burger King, you don't get everything your way. If you were an app designer, you'd a have a clue.

Kyle Thompson

a good point. clearly there is no way anyone could add the 23 lines of code required to shift it up or down as a settings option. for such a laborious fix, it was too much to ask.

Pros:
- They're easier to reach down there, especially on large phones. And more so for one-handed cases.
- It's mobile paradigm that's working extremely well for iOS (where this is common).

Cons:
- It's not an Android paradigm much at all. Gone are the days of bottom tab bars.
- They're close to the phone's navigation bar, so mistakes can easily be made by pressing Home, Back, or Tasks, especially with clumsy one-handed use. You'll have to be more precise.

There's quite a bit in the app's navigation that could be reworked to better reflect Android's UI specs, but it'd take some fairly significant exploring. Could be a fun exercise!

blindexecutioner

Bottom. Looks more cluttered maybe but it is more functional. I hate the FAB though regardless.